Warning: Un-beta'd.





vii. when times are hard we must endure (part ii)


They say bad things come in threes, so Victoria knows that nothing good will await her in the near future. When she finally recovers enough strength to get out of bed, she sluggishly makes her way towards the bath and cleanses herself.

Her first thought is how to face her husband again, after that afternoon they last met.

However, her worry is short lived as she returns to her organized room and finds a man in a suit standing at her doorway.

“You are?” She asks.

He bows at her and holds out a letter. “Sir Wu has asked me to deliver this letter.”

“Whatever is it about?” Victoria wonders aloud.

Accepting the letter, she walks into the room and takes a seat at the small tea table by the patio. She unfolds the paper and reads it carefully, her eyes widening at the content.

“A divorce?”

“Yes, milady,” the man replies, “Sir Wu is considering to file a divorce with the church, however, he found it only proper to notify you ahead of time.”

Victoria quietly reads the letter over once more, taking a deep breath and setting it aside. “So be it. He is free to act as he wishes.”

“I shall relay the message,” the man nods. At that, he excuses himself from the room and ventures down the hall, to which the maids quickly enter and gather around the shaken woman.

“Milady—“

She raises a hand to silence them. “No need to worry about me; I knew it would happen with time. After all, I am not the only he loves deepest. I think I need to catch a breath of fresh air,” she sighs, “if I’m not back by dinner, do ask for the Count and Countesses forgiveness on my behalf.”

And so she leaves, venturing into the streets on her own, with little in her hands but very much on her mind. The days are growing warmer, but Victoria feels her heart becoming colder.

In the end, it all comes down to this.

“We meet again, milady.”

It is Suho, with a stranger standing beside him. When Victoria had seen Suho last, he hadn’t been as radiant as he now appears, yet, the boy beside him doesn’t seem to be at all affected by his glamour.

“Milords,” Victoria curtsies.

“Let me introduce you to Tao, Victoria,” Suho smiles, albeit a little hesitant, taking her by the elbow and bringing her a little closer. “Victoria, this is Tao, Count of Rhone-Alpes. Tao, this is Victoria, wife of the son of Count of Aquitaine.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Tao bows at her before taking her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it, “although I’m sure this is not the first we’ve met.”

“Oh?” Suho muses.

Victoria nods and curtsies as well. “Milord does seem quite familiar.”

“That’s great then,” Suho exclaims. “Let me invite you both to tea and we can discuss many things together in entertainment and company.”





Thereafter, Victoria and Tao meet with each other more often than she does with Suho. They converse over tea and celebrate over wine; they share food from lunch to dinner and attend various theatrical plays sponsored by Suho and his alliances.

Over time, she becomes much more comfortable with Tao than she is with anyone else.

She tries not to stay home often from thereon, due to the awkwardness that slithers between Kris and herself.

“Are you still not filing for divorce yet?” She asks him, nearly a month after receiving his letter.

Kris doesn’t even glance her way. “Why should I?”

“You wrote that you would,” she argues, “was it a lie?”

Kris laughs. “You seem to anticipate the divorce more than myself,” he claims. “I know you’ve been seeing Sir Tao consistently the past few weeks. Am I supposed to grant you the freedom to be with whichever man you please? I have thought to reconsider my choices.”

“If you don’t want me, why keep me?” Victoria asks.

He stares her dead in the eyes, emotionless. “Because I own you,” he tells her. “I own you and I don’t want you to have the advantage of being with whichever wicked man you want, simply because I have the power to restrict you to so much. You can continue your affair but remember, Victoria, your relations with him will always be just that: an affair.”

Victoria falls to the ground after Kris exits the room, leaving behind a cold rush of air that engulfs her all around.

When did her husband become such a heartless man? The Kris she once knew would have never hurt her, even if he was just as reluctant to marry her and she was to marry him. Kris used to respect her, care for her, and protect her from harm, even if he didn’t love her.

Why, then, has he become so…. cold?





Tao’s kindness becomes Victoria’s only shelter and warmth.

He walks with her away from the carriage filled streets, he holds her hand when the crowds grow large, and he carries the umbrella when the days are wet and humid with rain. When she is with Tao, she feels cherished and adored—within Tao, she rediscovers what it like to be cared for.

And with every caring gesture from him, she appears to become more repulsive of Kris.

“Signor Lee can help you bring down the Count of Aquitaine and his family,” Tao tells her one day, rather casually. “As long as you are willing to oblige and gather information for us, we can tarnish them together.”

Victoria considers the offer; such a thought gnaws at her conscience with each passing moment, but her growing hate for Kris does not subside with time. Eventually, she agrees to comply. When Tao next brings her to the gathering of their alliances, she is not so surprised to see Suho present as well.

“Was this a part of your plan all along?” She asks him.

Suho shakes his head. “I had never expected to join this alliance, until I met and got to know you; this alliance wasn’t necessary until then. However, until today, I had never expected to see you in this alliance either. So is life, is it not? The most unexpected things always tend to happen first and foremost.”

“You almost sound bitter,” Victoria chuckles weakly.

He crosses one leg over the other and nods. “Yes, I suppose you could say that. I thought I had forfeited my love for a more courageous one.”

Victoria learns a lot on this day, but the most important fact she learns is that this alliance did not only exist to bed rid of the Count of Aquitaine, they were also the very people who are planning to join forces with the south and overrule their current King’s powers.

Before the meeting is dispersed, Victoria is approached by Sir Lee. Tao, sitting beside her, smiles devilishly and holds her hand in his own.

“I’ve heard from the Count himself that you have finally decided to join us, milady,” Signor Lee exclaims. “I cannot express how grateful I am for your decision. After all, Kris makes for a horrible husband, does he not?”

“Such is none of our business,” Tao excuses, guarding her from the man. “What matters is that she is with us now.”

“Yes,” Signor Lee agrees. “No need to get nervous, Sir Huang, I have absolutely no interest in taking your woman away from you. After all, it wasn’t easy for you to finally have her.”

Tao stares down at him, eyebrows raised.

“We are family now, after all.”

Laughing, Tao nods in agreement. “Yes, I’ve got many people to thank for being able to have a woman as great as Victoria by my side.”

The two of them share a knowing look before Signor Lee excuses himself from the conference room. It seems as though there is a lot Victoria isn’t aware of, yet, none of it seemed of great concern to her at the moment.

Returning home later that evening, Kris is already in their room, the tea table stacked high with books and books of documents and historical papers sent from the King himself.

“If I’m disturbing you, let me know and I’ll leave,” she says, however, she receives no reply.

Without another word she begins to undress and change into a nightgown, slipping beneath the blankets. The lights are kept on when she falls asleep but she wakes up hours later to the lights shut off, a small lamp still lighted at the table.

Kris is still reading; engrossed into the information he’s been assigned.

His wife watches him from the bed, tears collecting in her eyes. There must be so much Kris has kept from her; the pressure he’s going through, the expectations others are enforcing upon him, the anxiety of maintaining his family name.

Now that his father is old and his mother is no longer the woman she used to be, Kris must bear the burdens as the oldest son—as the only son—yet, he has no wife to stand beside him, no pillar of support and warmth for him to return to.

However, is this not his very own doing?

Although a majority of her heart hates him, a part of her still yearns for his affection.

Kris suddenly feels a set of arms wrap around his, Victoria’s face buried into the back of his shoulders. He can feel the weak raise and fall of her chest against his back.

With ease, he takes her arms and pulls her into his lap, Victoria immediately burying herself into his chest. For a moment—for a very brief second—she thought they had found what they once lost.

“How many times?” He asks her, and his voice and arms are ironically warm.

Victoria bites down on her lip. “How many times what?”

“How many times are you going lose your dignity to me before you learn?”

He throws her off and returns to his reading, listening as Victoria trudges back to their shared bed. She cries then, quietly sobbing into her pillow, making sure he cannot hear. With each passing moment, her heart wilts a little more.

The next morning, Kris is already gone. The books remain on the table, most of them scattered about the ground, and Victoria steps over to them, glancing them over and filing away the notes Kris has taken into her mind.

When she meets with Tao the next weekend, she makes sure to tell him all she knows. That information, then, is relayed to Signor Jung.

In the end, she couldn’t prevent her hatred from consuming her whole.

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A/N: As I have mentioned before, through numerous characters in this fanfic, all hard times and bad occurences will pass! I've often heard people say, while growing up, that you only taste sweetness after you've tasted bitterness. I am so happy that this fic is bringing so many emotions to my readers! As always, I want to thank each and every one of you who leave me heartfelt comments for your encouraging words~ it makes me so happy to see how you feel after reading what I've written! THANK YOU ♥♥♥Xue

p.s. I think I'm starting to ship Luhan/Victoria really hard. This is bad. This is really, really bad. T____T

Hit me up on twitter if you've got one ^______^V @qian_xin0202